We Are Tonight s Entertainment Rock and Rhyme Poetry INTRODUCTION: Rhyming poetry goes in and out of vogue all the time, except when it comes to children s poetry, which must always and absolutely be packed with fun and clever rhymes. Some poets take to rhyming like it s nothing, and sound-a-like words roll off their tongues like butter. But others struggle, dancing through the alphabet and flipping through rhyming dictionaries just to find a rhyme as simple as bat and cat. Poems that rhyme may be a challenge for some, but they re still fun to write, and a blast to read especially to read out loud. Even when rhyming is not popular among poets, it s still good practice for exploring language and having fun with word play. ROCK AND RHYME: In honor of the tradition of rhyming poems, we ve prepared some poetry writing exercises that are designed to help you get your rhyme on and these are especially fun because we get to play with your favourite genre of poetry: popular music. We ll start with the core exercise, which we will call Rock and Rhyme; then, we ll move on to a few variations that you can try. All you need is a song. A good song, rhythmic and rhyme-y, but not with a lot of fancy runs. You ll want a relatively simple tune. Go for an old Beatles song, or just about anything from the eighties. Disco could work, if you re into that kind of thing, but forget about classical music because most of it doesn t have lyrics, and what we re doing requires words. We re writers, right? If you know all the lyrics to your song, that will be immensely helpful. If not, Google the song title with the word lyrics and you ll find it in three seconds flat. Take those lyrics, and rewrite them, trying to match as many rhymes in the song as possible, and not just the end rhymes. Make an effort to match the internal rhymes too. Your rhymes can be as strict or as loose as you want. If you do just a few of these, pretty soon rhyming will start to feel more natural, and your rhymes will flow with ease.
SEE HOW WE ROLL: Here s our attempt with the first chorus from 80s one hit wonder 99 Red Balloons by Nena. THE ORIGINAL VERSE: You and I in a little toy shop Buy a bag of balloons with the money we ve got Set them free at the break of dawn Till one by one they were gone Back at base, bugs in the software Flash the message: something s out there Floating in the summer sky Ninety-nine red balloons go by MY ATTEMPT TO CATCH THE RHYME: Shoes untied at a little bus stop Sigh and whistle a tune cause it s all that you ve got Set your feet on the fake green lawn Tie your shoes and then you yawn Flash the mace, thugs on the make here Cash is precious: buy a cold beer Waiting till the bus comes by Mighty fine greasy spoon let s dine! THE ASSIGNMENT: Create your own Rock and Rhyme poem. Must be at least two versus and a chorus long. Needs to focus on the Enduring Understanding: The Power of Perception or on the Essential Question: Does Making a Choice Mean Making a Compromise? For extra style points, try to connect it to The Dark Knight or The Warrior.
CHAPTER 3: DR. JEKYLL WAS GENERAL COMPREHENSION VOCABULARY: Abominable Befallen Blatant Cronies Fortnight Gaiety Irrepressible Unobtrusive DIRECTIONS: There are not too many big bangs in language history where words emerge brand new without ancestry, thus you need to grasp the way that language evolves and changes over time. To demonstrate this understanding, work with the Oxford English Dictionary to trace the etymology and changing meanings of at least two to of the seven words listed above. Present this research in the form (left) of Bio-Poems (example right): First name Four traits that describe the person Relative of Lover of Who feels Who needs Who fears Who would like to see Resident of Last name Eleck Shock, current, vital, magnetic Relative of anatomy, atom, contemplate, epitome Lover of friction, lightning, heat Who feels hot, shocking, active Who needs chemical action, magnetism, energy Who fears water, rain, diffusion Who would like to see stimulation, technology, mechanics Resident of cities Tron For instance, the word electricity traces back to 1646 meaning, attract by friction. The term s family tree has two major branches; elek, meaning friction, heat and tron, meaning water and diffusion. The Bio-Poem above uses these two parts for the first name and last name.
CHAPTER 8: THE LAST NIGHT THE BALLAD OF JEKYLL AND HYDE As you read the Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde you were asked to highlight any words, expressions, or passages that stood out to you. Now your task is to create a found poem using those lines and phrases from the novel that resonated with its key theme, the balance of opposites. To create your poem, follow this process: 1. Go back through the novella and compile a list of the words, phrases, and sentences that you underlined on first reading. You should shoot for at least twenty selections consider reading ahead to the end of the novella if you require more to work with. 2. Using the prompt of the balance of opposites, create a theme statement to serve as the title or first sentence of your poem. 3. Create a free verse poem of your notations by organizing them (like a jigsaw puzzle) in a manner that best fits your theme statement. If necessary, you may add your own words or phrases to link sections. 4. Write a final copy of your poem and include an illustration.
English 20-1 POETRY ANTHOLOGY 5 Euonics Euonia, which means beautiful thinking, is the shortest English word to contain all five vowels. It is also the title of a book by poet Christian BÖk (ironically pronounced book), and winner of the 2002 Griffin Poetry Prize. In this work, BÖk explores the world of bound poetry, construing his language so much that each chapter is dedicated to a vowel, and the words in this chapter only contain the vowel to which that word is dedicated. The following passage is a selection from Chapter E, a chapter that retells the story of the Iliad (the fall of Troy) using only words that contain the vowel E: Whenever Helen sleeps, her fevered rest meekens her; hence, she re-emerges enfeebled her strength, expended; her reserves depleted. The extended fevers, when severe, entrench her enfeeblement. She clenches her teeth, then exerts herself; nevertheless, she feels strengthless (her meek self rendered even meeker). Her strenghtlessness dejects her. He also uses single words, specifically the titles of his poems to limit the letters used, as in the following selection: VOWELS loveless vessels we vow solo love we see love solve loss else we see love sow woe selves we woo we loose we sell losses we levee we owe loose vows so we love less well so low so level wolves evolve The important part of BÖk s work is that he always strove to maintain meaning, to have a message that was always maintained despite the constraints he put on his language. Your task, is to create your own eunoiac poem. You may either select a vowel (A, E, I, O, U or even Y, however I would recommend staying away from Y) and create a poem that meets the criteria below. You may also parody the second poem and select a title, and then from that title create a poem from only those letters (although I think this would be more difficult). Make sure that your poem does the following: #1) It must contain a MINIMUM of 15 words #2) It must be bound in one of the two ways mentioned above #3) It CAN NOT be nonsensical, it MUST have meaning Good Luck! I know this is difficult, but it order for us to truly learn, to truly think, we must meet and surpass adversity. If everything were easy, if it all came naturally, we would never really learn anything.